Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said on Wednesday housing was a major issue in dealing with health workforce shortages.Credit:Glenn Hunt
Called HealthQ32,the high-level document sets out seven priority areas. A decade-long strategy and actions for each of the areas will be released “throughout 2023”,the department website states.
But after delivering her speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia event,the key question for many of those who submitted them to the facilitator was more immediate:How doesthe housing crunch affect the government’s ability to attract and retain new health workers?
D’Ath said the task was a challenge,with the construction of student,nursing and clinician accommodation in the pipeline. Hospital and health services bosses,however,were using more unorthodox methods to find accommodation for staff.
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“I’ve got chief executives who are ringing up real estate agents right now saying,‘What have you got if I bring a doctor to town?’ she said.
“That’s how much we are reaching in to try to deal with the challenges with workforce shortages,and we know housing is one of those critical areas.”
Beyond theworkforce issues,an ageing population,worsening GP access and declining private health insurance coverage,along with the pandemic and its flow-on effects,had created a “perfect storm” of pressures on public hospitals and the health system more broadly,D’Ath said.